Tag "tourism"

The hardest part of travelling isn’t the plane ride 1,000 miles away by yourself, the foreign food, or the strange bed you sleep on. The hardest part of travelling is coming back home. It’s wonderful to explore the world, meet amazing new people, gain new experiences, and ultimately find yourself, but then reality hits when you return home. When you get back, it’s a high for about two weeks. Basically a celebrity, you are the revered person everyone wants to hang out with, and hear about your trip and your experiences, but what happens when you become just a regular person again?

Cape Town is known for its vivid landscapes and vibrant architecture. During my walks through the Bo-Kaap area, Muizenberg and the townships, however, I realised that there is especially one element that reveals the true colours of the city: the people. It is hardly surprising that Archbishop Desmond Tutu coined the term ‘rainbow nation’ in order to describe South Africa’s multicultural diversity. It is a reflection of the assorted colours and animated personalities that make up the Mother City.

The Kruger National Park in South Africa is one of the best places to see some legendary African animals including the big five – lion, leopard, buffalo, elephant and rhino. The park is also one of the biggest of its kind, covering over 19,000 square kilometres with beautiful green vegetation and six major rivers. It’s home to over 140 mammal species and 500 types of birds, providing the greatest diversity of big animals in Africa. No wonder people from all over the world come to experience the wildlife here.

Welcome to Cape Town. The most beautiful city in the world. As with every city, it has a side that is well known to the locals and yet unfamiliar to tourists. After chatting to Capetonians, they revealed where they love to hang out. Here are some of the top choices.

It’s 42 degrees outside. I’m standing in the back of a pickup truck with eight other girls, ducking from stray branches as we rocket along a bumpy dirt path leading back to the lodge. Sometimes we look back to check on the horse in the trailer we’re hauling. Yep, still dead.

South Africa has one of the most fascinating coastlines in the world. It’s a meeting place of two mighty oceans, the Atlantic with its cold currents from the west and the Indian with its warmer east coast streams. This Venn diagram of oceans creates interesting marine activity. And if scuba-diving is not for you, there is another option which enables you to witness this underwater world. A visit to the Two Oceans Aquarium will introduce you to the sea life extravaganza. Did you know that humans have only explored less than 5% of the ocean? One can only imagine what’s down there! Aquariums give a glimpse into this sparkly and mysterious world of the deep seas.

Cape Town has been more than welcoming and more than worth her status as The Mother City. Warm and hospitable, she has taken me under her matriarchal wing with aplomb, greeting me with wonderful weather and an amazingly convivial atmosphere.

It’s far too easy to heap praise upon praise, and I know for a fact that thousands of other volunteers, visitors and tourists would be saying exactly the same thing as I have just said. Instead I would rather make a comparison with my home town of Loughborough.

I am definitely not the hiking kind of girl. Sure, I appreciate a calming Sunday walk with a nice view, but the adventurous stuff I am happy to leave for others more suited to thrills. Nevertheless, I heard that climbing Table Mountain is kind of obligatory if you’re staying in Cape Town for a long period of time, and if so many had done it before me, why wouldn’t I be able to?